1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to network host configuration. More specifically, the invention relates to automatically assigning location-dependent hostnames to client devices over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic home controllers allow users to control aspects of their homes such as lights, air conditioners, heaters, fans, curtains, door locks, alarm systems, windows, and other devices using a common user-interface such as their existing television (TV) and TV remote control. A single home control box is installed in the home and integrated with motors, switches and other actuators for various aspects of the home that the user desires to control. The home control box is then configured to establish communication with one or more set-top boxes (STBs) installed in rooms throughout the home. The communication may be established over an internet protocol (IP) network, and, to support this communication, the home control box is configured to connect to a media access control (MAC) address, IP address, and/or hostname of one more STBs in the user's home. Similarly, the various STBs in the user's home may be configured to connect to the MAC address, IP address, and/or hostname of the home control box to establish communications in the other direction. These configuration details are stored in a non-volatile memory of each device. Static IP addresses and/or hostnames are utilized in conjunction with each device's permanent MAC address to stabilize the settings for each device so that configuration is only required once at installation. After this one-time manual configuration of all devices, the home control box can automatically report information to any STB for display on an attached TV and the user can utilize their TV and familiar infrared remote control to perform various home control functions. For example, when starting a movie in a certain room, the curtains in that room may be closed and the lights dimmed without the user needing to leave the sofa.
There is interest to bring such controller technology to the hospitality industry. For example, it would be desirable to provide all the same in-room control options to a guest staying in a hotel room or suite. To take advantage of controller boxes already available for the home market, each guest room and/or suite providing guest accommodations in a hotel or resort may be equipped with its own “home” controller being utilized as a room control box. One or more STBs and the room control box in each room/suite are then manually configured at installation with static configuration information to allow them to communicate with each other over the hotel's IP network. Besides allowing for guest control of in-room aspects, another benefit of allowing electronic control of in-room aspects such as lights, heat, and air-conditioning is to allow the hotel to reduce electricity costs. For example, all electronic devices in a particular room may be automatically shut off by a central control server and heating and air conditioning in the room may be reduced to minimum levels when a guest is not checked-in to the room.
One problem with installing a room control box in each hotel room or suite is how to manage network configuration of the room control boxes and STBs throughout all rooms in the hotel so that the appropriate devices are able to communicate with each other over the hotel's local area network (LAN). For security reasons, it is desirable that a STB in a first guest room not be able to monitor or control aspects of a second (unrelated) guest room; however, it is also inevitable that some devices will malfunction and need to be replaced with a replacement device. Sometimes, it may be desirable that a working device from an unused room be quickly moved to a room experiencing a problem. Requiring each device in a room to be manually programmed with its own static settings and possibly with the static settings related to other devices in the same room places a burden on hotel staff to be able to rapidly and accurately perform such configurations when needed. Device configuration may be difficult for non-technical staff, for example. If a specialist needs to be called each time a malfunctioning device is to be replaced with a new one, guests are negatively impacted by slow response times. Additionally, since different vendors may provide different parts of the hotel's entertainment system, more than one company may be involved in reconfiguration tasks, which further increases delay to guests. For example, replacing or installing a room control box in a particular room may involve configuration of the new room control box itself and also changes to the configuration of one or more STBs in that room and/or a central control server, all of which may be managed by different companies.
Some large hotels and resorts have thousands of guest rooms and suites, each having multiple networked devices such as STBs and room control boxes. Manually maintaining a table of address mappings between devices in each room is not a trivial task, especially when addresses and hostnames of the devices may change at any time due to changes in the network configuration or the devices themselves.